


It's the little things that keep you going

by hhike



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Sleepiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27356386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhike/pseuds/hhike
Summary: In the end, it took him just shy of forty hours to get the bail jumper into carbonite - somehow, they never seemed to want the easy way home. Forty hours uninterrupted, without sleep, rest or a chance to let his heart rate sink below a hundred and twenty. By the time he made it back to the crest the only thing keeping him on his feet was caffeine and spite.
Comments: 21
Kudos: 91





	It's the little things that keep you going

**Author's Note:**

> I blame The Covert for making me do this: https://discord.gg/eYBJx8q
> 
> Go read CoffeeQuill's fics!

Bounty hunting was a demanding profession, doubly so when you were both predator and prey. Tracking down a mark while staying off the radar demanded constant vigilance and unrelenting willpower - neither of which was in short supply in Din Djarin. There was the odd job that was as easy as walking into a bar and cutting someone in half with a door, but most of the time, Din had to earn his reward the hard way.

The fob he had received for his latest contract has seen better days, so he had to resort to more traditional methods of tracking him. That meant there was no room for mistakes and no time for rest. Every moment Din spent not actively chasing his prey, he got farther away, and the chances of his tracks going cold increased.

In the end, it took him just shy of forty hours to get the bail jumper into carbonite - somehow, they never seemed to want the easy way home. Forty hours uninterrupted, without sleep, rest or a chance to let his heart rate sink below a hundred and twenty. By the time he made it back to the crest the only thing keeping him on his feet was caffeine and spite.

The metallic clang of beskar connecting with steel echoed through the cargo hold. Din rested his head on the closest beam once the carbonite was solid enough that he wasn’t worried about the runaway prince jumping out at any moment. He contemplated collapsing on the spot for a moment, but there was a feeling in the back of his mind that told him he needed to get the Crest off the ground. 

He was halfway up the ladder into the cockpit by the time he followed the loose thread of feelings and thoughts until he remembered that the atmosphere on this ball of dirt was slightly corrosive. He was in no mood for hunting micro-leaks in the outer hull later, so he went through the motions of the takeoff sequence and finally relaxed once he saw the stars leave trails across his vision and the engines were humming the low thrum of hyperspace. 

Din didn’t finish exhaling his I-am-finally-home sigh before sleep got to him. When he awoke, minutes or hours later, he found himself somewhat slumped in his seat, his back already complaining about the unnatural angle that the chair and his armor forced him into. He reached for the dashboard to make sure they didn’t stray off course too far, only to notice that there was something impeding his movement. He was about to chalk it up to the crash from the stimulant he took before the hunt, but this was something more tangible - his blanket, haphazardly draped over his lower body. Without thinking too much of it, he pulled up the rough fabric to his neck and drifted back off to sleep.

The next time he opened his eyes, they were still in hyperspace. That was good, it meant he was out for less than five hours. He had slumped even further in his seat, his knees hitting the panels of the Crest and his back almost horizontal. He would regret not adjusting his position, he knew that, but he also knew he was in no shape to move yet. So, he looked at every screen he could see from his current position, made sure they were not about to blow into stardust, and went back to sleep - or at least tried to.

When he moved his head to the side for a tiny bit of comfort, a fist-sized something slid across his field of vision and landed in his lap. It was shaped more like a mudhorn than an explosive charge or blade, so Din didn’t give it much thought, though he was distantly wondering what it was doing on his head and how it got there.

The third time he startled awake was when his posture finally slouched enough that his head hit the armrest with a solid bonk. He gathered himself set upright even despite the protests of his joints. As he did, he heard at least six different objects make the descent from his armor to the ground, several of them rolling away. He hoped none of them were explosives.

He kept blinking to regain some focus in his vision, trying to take a more detailed inventory of all the dials in the Crest - something that would tell him more than “we’re not right before annihilation”.

What he saw instead were two familiar shapes on top of the dashboard, blotting out a part of the starscape. Both of these brought Din joy in different ways: one was the steel mug he used for caff, the other one was the Kid, shakily holding out said mug for Din to take. The implication that the Kid had used the disagreeable hunk of metal that was the caff machine got him awake and focused faster than any mildly addictive chemical could hope. He grabbed the mug with two hands to stabilize it, only to notice it was empty. Never had he been so happy seeing an empty caff mug.

Din couldn’t help but chuckle, the Kid definitely had the right idea.

“Good effort, little one.” 

Din put the mug aside and pulled the womp rat into his lap, netting him a satisfied coo. Din’s plan had been a quick hug, then getting up and taking inventory of the various items now strewn across the cockpit floor, but the baby had other ideas. He had already settled in Din’s lap, two tiny hands clinging to his cuirass. _Guess we’re staying. For a little while longer._


End file.
